Dangers, however sinister, must, at no time, dim the
radiance of their [the American Bahá'ís] new-born faith. Strife and confusion,
however bewildering, must never befog their vision. Tribulations, however
afflictive, must never shatter their resolve. Denunciations, however clamorous,
must never sap their loyalty. Upheavals, however cataclysmic, must never
deflect their course. The present Plan, embodying the budding hopes of a departed
Master, must be pursued, relentlessly pursued, whatever may befall them in the
future, however distracting the crises that may agitate their country or the
world. Far from yielding in their resolve, far from growing oblivious of their
task, they should, at no time, however much buffeted by circumstances, forget
that the synchronization of such world-shaking crises with the progressive
unfoldment and fruition of their divinely appointed task is itself the work of
Providence, the design of an inscrutable Wisdom, and the purpose of an
all-compelling Will, a Will that directs and controls, in its own mysterious
way, both the fortunes of the Faith and the destinies of men. Such simultaneous
processes of rise and of fall, of integration and of disintegration, of order
and chaos, with their continuous and reciprocal reactions on each other, are
but aspects of a greater Plan, one and indivisible, whose Source is God, whose
author is Bahá'u'lláh, the theater of whose operations is the entire planet,
and whose ultimate objectives are the unity of the human race and the peace of
all mankind.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 25 December 1938 to the
Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, published as The Advent of Divine
Justice)
